The Casual Vacancy

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock and the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen.

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Enter a small town in a which a member of the council dies and an uproar begins over who will take the empty seat. It was very interesting to figure out how everyone was connected and get glimpses into each of the runner's lives, as well as the lives of their children, who end up involved in their own ways. Very intriguing characters and somehow some mundane days are made exciting simply through J.K. Rowling's superb writing.

Remember when Britney Spears/Christina Aguilera/ Miley Cyrus etc tried to rebrand themselves from the teeny-bopper to something more "sophisticated" by becoming excessively sexual and vulgar?? Same thing here, plus the characters embody some of the worst qualities in people to make the overall tone of the book very negative.

Most people who read Harry Potter before reading this novel seem to hate it. I have never read Harry Potter (I'm one of nine left in the world) and so I have a different perspective of The Casual Vacancy. I loved it.

The story moves with a pace that made my heart skip. The characters are unique and so incredibly realistic. The novel is heartbreaking and entertaining and, dare I say it, perfect.

If you enjoy reading stories about scheming, backstabbing, hateful, violent, depressing, and morally bankrupt characters with no redeeming qualities and a very unhappy and dissatisfying ending, this book is for you. If you hated the Harry Potter Series and prefer your fiction more true to life and grittier, this book may be for you. If you dislike books with happy endings, this may be the book for you. If, however, you like happy endings, and at least one decent human being in your fiction, don't even open this one.

If you like reading the "f-bomb" repeatedly, then this is the book for you. I didn't care for it at all, but it could be because it was as far away from Harry Potter as you can get!

PrimaGigi
Jul 19, 2015

When Barry Fairbrother suddenly dies in his forties, the idyllic town of Pagford is left in total shock. Pagford is, seemingly, peaceful English town, with cobbled streets, a market square and a abandoned abbey, but beneath all the peace lies a town at odds. A war is brewing between family and friends, Pagford might not be as charming as it seems. The empty seat left by Barry on the parish council is the spark that ignites the whole blaze. Who will win the seat among deceit and intrigue.

I understand the need for writers to branch out to seem versatile and have diversity within their writing. That they can tackle any subject and should not be pigeonholed within the genre that made them famous. If you are expecting J.K. Rowling to hold up the book with her superior wit and creative structure within only a few daft sentences, please don't read this book. I wouldn't have read this book if it wasn't J.K. Rowling, I didn't expect another Harry Potter adaptation and respected that she wanted to branch out. I felt that because she was so amazingly wonderful at building a story and holding you in, this would be nothing for her. I was wrong. J.K. is so busy trying to show that's she not that J.K., but this J.K.; The subject is denser, but she misses the mark and leaves the story-telling and the story by the wayside. There are too many people, the chapters are cut into small vignettes and once you learn about something new, you are bombarded with another issue or third character from the first part, talking or meeting the fifth character from the second part of the third chapter. The whole premise seems like it's meant to confuse you as some type of layered intrigue. The characters themselves are bland and contrived. There is not a singular person you would root for and that's disappointing since J.K. has the knack for making you care for even the worst villain's.

It seems she just made a rough draft an entire novel and wrote up whatever came to mind that sounded risque or outre. I personally wouldn't have bothered to read this as far as I tried to. If you expect to read this, hoping for one of her famous techniques to punch you in the gut or send tingles down your spine, that brings all her stories together. All you get is mild distaste. I won't give up hope. I do believe she can handle different genres from adults to toddlers ABC books and make them magical (not just in the wizard-sense), I just don't think this was the best novel to s

What an out and out disappointment. There was not one character in this book with whom one could become engaged and the whole plot was forced. Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing was humourous, Rowling's attempt to blow a minor event into a novel a dismal failure. The younger characters were universally unlovable, parents were immature and dull and everyone else was artificial. I forced myself through 80% of the book because I just couldn't believe that Rowling could write such a ripsnorting bunch of crap and consequently expected things to improve. I gave up with only 50 pages to go - just wasn't interested enough to know how it all came out.

Quotes

You must accept the reality of other people. You think that reality is up for negotiation, that we think it's whatever you say it is. You must accept that we are as real as you are; you must accept that you are not God.

How awful it was, though Tessa, remembering Fats the toddler, way tiny ghosts of your living children haunted your heart; they could never know, and would hate it if they did, how their growing was a constant bereavement.